Heather North Who Voiced Daphne On 'Scooby-Doo' Dies At 71

Heather North passed away last month. The actress was best known for voicing the fashion-loving, danger-prone, young sleuth Daphne Blake in the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! on television.

A close family friend, Jodie Mann, confirmed the news to the press on Monday, Dec. 19. North passed away on Nov. 30 in her home in Studio City after battling a long illness. She was 71 years old.

Aside from voice work, the Pasadena native also starred alongside Kurt Russell in Disney's The Barefoot Executive, a movie about a chimpanzee who can predict which shows will be a success on television. She also appeared in the long-running soap, Days of Our Lives, where she met her husband, H. Wesley Kenney, an Emmy Award-winning producer and director.

However, her work as Daphne was what launched her career in the entertainment business.

She joined the young sleuths of the Mystery Machine in the second season of the Saturday morning cartoon, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (another actress, Stefanianna Christopherson, voiced the character in the show's first season) in the 1970s.

She later returned to voice Daphne in The New Scooby-Doo Movies, Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour, Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, and other incarnations of the cartoon up to the early 2000s.

Grey DeLisle replaced North as the voice of Daphne in Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! and the upcoming DC superhero tie-in, Scooby-Doo & Batman: the Brave and the Bold, slated to be released in 2018.

North's IMDB page also lists voice work for Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, a superhero cartoon series that ran from 1977-1980. She also made appearances in Git!, I Love My Wife, The Fugitive, Green Acres, Love, American Style, Ironside, and Adam-12.

Deadline adds that the actress also appeared on Broadway alongside Marjorie Lord and Alan Young in The Girl in the Freudian Slip.

North is survived by her children Kevin, Nina, Wes, six grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. Her husband, Kenney, died in 2015. A memorial will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 21, at 11:30 a.m. at the First Christian Church in Studio City.

Love For Heather North

North has touched many lives thanks to her work on Scooby-Doo, Where Are You and other iterations of the popular mystery cartoon. After news of her passing was revealed, fans hopped onto social media to express their love and gratitude to the voice actress who has been a part of everyone's childhood and to many generations to come.